Darren Green is a junior at Franklin High School and plays for the boys’ soccer team, which won the 6A state championship in 2019. He wrote the following essay about making the team, winning the championship, and being a Black teenager in Portland.
It all started when I was 11 years old.
I was really confused on what I wanted to do with my future and hadn’t found my passion for anything. Fortunately though, while I was growing up, I realized I could be great at anything I put my mind to.
At this time, I was in 7th grade, and I was having a hard time at home. We didn’t have everything we needed as a family. Sometimes I wouldn’t have dinner because it would be the end of the month and food stamps would be low.
My troubles at home got in the way of school. It was hard staying focused in class when things at home weren’t going as planned. I had a lot of people in my life that wanted to help in a positive way, but I also had a lot of friends that were holding me back from being a good person and picking the right thing to do.
I kept finding myself in trouble, no matter how hard I tried to stay out of it. I would never pay attention and was always the class clown. Regardless of what happened, I always found myself in the principal’s office for one thing or another. I was suspended tons of times, which took away my motivation to even go to school every day. This really disappointed my mom, because she knew I was better than that. Eventually, I noticed that one of the only things that motivated me to go to school was soccer. I wasn’t on a team, but I got to play at recess and I loved it.
As my 8th grade year started, I was still going through the same family and school hardships, but I had met new friends. I also had the support of my mentor, Justin, who I met through Friends of the Children when I was in the 3rd grade. Justin is a really big positive influence and role model for me. He led me to God, which has had one of the biggest impacts on my life, helping me find my identity and purpose. Justin played that father figure for me. Whenever my mom couldn’t be there for me because of work, Justin would always be by my side. Justin and God both helped me be more motivated, and that’s when I began thinking more about what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be great at.
Unfortunately, change takes time. I didn’t grow up with very much positivity or people who influenced me in positive ways, so sometimes it was hard for me to be around the new friends I had made. I found it uncomfortable, because I wasn’t used to being surrounded by people who were not getting in trouble and who cared about school. Even though I had lots of motivation to be a good kid, I continued to always end up in the same place… The principal’s office.
The biggest life lesson I learned in 8th grade was that people come and go from our lives, but only a handful of them truly make a difference in our future.
The next year, freshman year of high school, was a fresh start. Unfortunately, I had a terrible start to high school. I didn’t know what to expect or what classes I wanted to take, and it was hard for me to adjust from being essentially locked down in middle school to having so much freedom in high school.
I spent about the first six months skipping school and not participating in anything. It was fun at first, but I also struggled internally because I knew I was better than this.
One day the soccer coach asked me, “Darren, why don’t you play soccer for us?” I wasn’t sure what to say. I hadn’t really thought about playing on an actual team before. Partway through the season, I ended up asking the coach if I could join the team, and he had told me, “Yes, you can come to tryouts.” I was excited, but also nervous, since I didn’t start the year with them.
Unfortunately, when I showed up for my tryout, I was told I couldn’t actually play or even try out because my grades weren’t good enough.
I went home and cried. I had gotten so excited about playing soccer for my school. I had been feeling motivated about high school for the first time. But I couldn’t play.
In the end, not being able to try out was a learning experience. It ended up being just what I needed to help me decide that I was passionate about soccer and wanted to do everything in my power to be able to play. I learned that no matter how good you are on the field, you will always need the grades in order to play high school sports. From this point forward, I knew that in order to play soccer, I needed to also be a good student.
I buckled down and worked really hard in school to make sure I would be able to play the following year. This decision was one of the best decisions I made that year. It was hard, but playing soccer was what I truly wanted.
Fast forward to sophomore year. The year I had been looking forward to because I knew I would be able to play soccer—if I kept working hard in the classroom.
The school year got off to a great start! I had passed all of my classes the previous semester, making me eligible to play, and I was looking forward to the soccer season. I started playing lots of soccer on my own to make sure I was ready for the tryouts, which were just around the corner.
The tryout wasn’t an easy process at all. It was seven days long. The first three days, I trained with the JV players because of my age. I understood why, but I believed I was good enough to make the varsity team.
I pushed myself every day. I was being more selfish than usual because my skill set was better than the other players I was playing with, and it showed. Then the coach brought me over and told me to go train with varsity. I knew it was up from here. And I was right—thanks to my hard work, I exceeded my goal and made the varsity team. Not only did I make the team, but I earned the right to play the position I wanted—attacking center mid—and I was going to be a starter!
As the season started, we were definitely the underdogs—my school, Franklin, had never had a strong soccer program—but we kept figuring out ways to win. Our coaches helped us keep a positive mindset, and we went into every game believing that we could beat whoever we were playing. As the season progressed and we kept winning, our confidence grew and I learned more about what I was capable of doing on the field.
We ended up having a great season! Beating our biggest rivals—Cleveland and Lincoln, both of which were whiter and wealthier schools—were big turning points for us. Doing so was not easy at all. We had skilled players, but we had a lot to overcome mentally. Our team didn’t have experience winning in this way; we had never played in front of big crowds. We needed to believe in our abilities in order to reach our dream of reaching the playoffs.
We went on to win the league. It was the first time in decades Franklin had done so.
Then the playoffs came. We were seeded high, so we started off playing teams that had worse records than us. Our team was happy to be in the position we were in. We came out strong, won our first three games, and ended up making it to the state finals! This was the first time in 56 years that the Franklin men’s soccer team had the chance to win a state championship.
With every win, our belief in what we were capable of grew, and my understanding of what I could contribute as a player grew as well.
The day of the state championship: lots of adrenaline and lots of excitement. On the way over to Hillsboro Stadium to play Summit, everyone is super hyped. Some people are nervous, but I’m not. It feels like the whole school is behind us. They even paid for three busloads of students to come cheer us on.
We have a great start and get a 1–0 lead within the first 10 minutes, which we hold for most of the game. Then, in the last 10 minutes of the second half, Summit equalizes. We regather as a team and put some motivation into one another. We were in the same position in the semifinals against Cleveland—they equalized in the last four minutes of regular time—so we know we can come out on top if we keep a positive mindset. We go into overtime, with the fans chanting like crazy.
With two minutes left, our goalkeeper, Gael Salas-Lara, has a goal kick and sends it straight to me. I chest it down and play it to our right mid, who sends it into the box. Andrew Reed, our left winger, finds the end of it and scores to put us up 2–1. Finally, the whistle blows.
We did it! We won the 2019 Oregon State Championship! It was hard on so many levels, but we got the job done. When I think back on what we accomplished, I think it is one of the best things that I have been able to experience. And it helped me to become more clear about what I wanted to do with my life.
The biggest thing I learned from my sophomore year was, no matter how hard times get, there is always a way.
And then COVID-19 hit.
Going into my junior year, I knew that I wanted to continue playing soccer. I had a new goal: I wanted to play soccer at a Division 1 college. This meant I needed to get into better shape, train to improve my skills, and raise my GPA, which was still low from my freshman year when I skipped so many classes and earned so many Fs. I was focused and ready to do anything I needed to do to reach my goal.
COVID-19 brought many challenges to my life, but also made a lot of things easy for me. It is hard not being able to just hang out with my friends whenever I want to. Over time, it’s gotten a lot easier and I have adjusted. A lot of tournaments where I would have had a chance to showcase my talents for coaches from across the country were cancelled because of COVID. The good thing about COVID, however, is that it has made it a lot easier for me when it comes to school. I like doing online school from home. I have a lot more time to do my assignments, and I can do it on my schedule. I also have more time to train, which has been really helpful.
Of course, COVID-19 wasn’t the only challenge 2020 brought. It was also a year of police brutality and protests.
I am a Black teenager. Sometimes it can be hard being a black teenager in Portland, Oregon which is a mostly white city. Sometimes I get treated differently just because of my race, which is frustrating and really unfair. Sometimes I get scared around police officers, and that should never happen. Police are supposed to be here to protect us. I should not be afraid of them. I never want that time to come where my life is in danger because of my race.
I just want white people to at least care about how we are being treated and do the best they can to show empathy in some way. A lot of Black lives have been taken for no reason at all. No one deserves to have their life threatened just because of the color of their skin.
A bunch of great protests happened over the summer, which is hopeful. Through the protests, a lot has been recognized about the need to call out racism in our country. Even though we are not where we want to be as a Black community, if stuff like protests and teachers teaching more about racism continues to happen, things like police brutality and people thinking badly about Black people will get better.
Through it all, I’ve stayed focused on my goals of earning a scholarship to play Division 1 soccer, and then becoming a professional.
Soccer has been an outlet for me. It has brought many great things to my life and has helped me surround myself with positive people that want to see me be successful. As I continue to work hard, I know a lot of doors will open and I will be in the position that I want to be in within the next few years. I hope that I can do this for the rest of my life, or at least until I retire from being a professional soccer player.
Life can be really difficult. We all have our own challenges and struggles. I am working hard, setting goals for myself, and having my faith in God to help me along the way.
